Unilever bosses' windfall from £115bn bid: Executives picked up £3.3m in shares two days before Kraft Heinz move

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The takeover bid by US giant Kraft Heinz has handed bosses at Marmite maker Unilever a £500,000 windfall on shares they picked up two days earlier.

Unilever chief executive Paul Polman was among 13 executives at the firm given shares worth £3.3m on Wednesday.

Yesterday, the company’s value soared 13 per cent as it was revealed ketchup maker Kraft Heinz had staged an audacious takeover bid. 

Cashing in: Unilever chief executive Paul Polman 

It meant the board members of Unilever saw their shares climb by around £500,000. Polman, 60, who is renowned for his zany comments on the environment and business methods, made £150,000.

On top of this he saw his stake in the company worth an estimated £10.4m yesterday morning, soar by £1.5m.

The surprise £115bn bid by Kraft Heinz, which was rejected by Unilever, would have been the second-biggest takeover deal in history, behind the £147bn swoop on Germany’s Mannesmann by Vodafone in 2000.

Buffett’s pulling the strings... 

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett was behind Kraft Heinz’s audacious £115bn swoop for European rival Unilever – and is ready to bankroll an even bigger offer.

Buffett, 86, dubbed the Sage of Omaha for his ability to predict the markets, owns a 26.8pc stake in Kraft though his Berkshire Hathaway fund. A further 24.1pc is owned by controversial Brazilian private equity firm 3G, which in the past has been a close ally of Buffett (pictured above with actress Glenn Close at a summit in Washington).

Buffett, who according to Forbes is the world’s second richest man worth around £68bn, built his stake in Kraft with 3G in 2015. The two had previously teamed up when 3G merged Burger King with doughnut chain Tim Hortons to create the firm Restaurant brands International. 3G also controls AB InBev, which last year merged with SAB Miller in a £69bn deal.

Buffett has said he wanted to work with 3G on another takeover in the future. The veteran investor, who backed Hillary Clinton in the US elections last year, has shown no signs of wanting to step back from his firm. He recently said he could keep going until he was 100.

It could surpass this record with Kraft Heinz set to return to the bargaining table with a bigger bid, which must be by March 17 under US takeover rules.

The takeover would be a bumper payday for investment banks, stockbrokers, lawyers and other advisers. 

Lazard has been appointed to broker a deal for Kraft, while Morgan Stanley and Centerview are acting for Unilever, along with corporate brokers UBS and Deutsche.

Kraft made an offer 18 per cent above the value of the shares on Thursday that would see Unilever shareholders receive £40 a share in a mix of cash and equity.

Mega deal: Ketchup maker Kraft Heinz has made a takeover approach to Unilever. Marmite owner Unilever sees no merit in Kraft takeover

But the Anglo-Dutch company said the offer undervalued the firm, and added it had no merit.

Analysts predicted competition concerns, suggesting a deal might not get approval from regulators.

Michael Hewson, analyst at CMC Markets, said: ‘The amount of costs that could well get stripped out of any combined entity is bound to worry governments in countries where Unilever has a significant number of employees, like the UK and Holland. UK authorities have already had experience of broken promises by Kraft in the Cadbury takeover a few years ago.’

For Kraft, the deal would help it to achieve explosive growth almost overnight.

Steve Clayton, fund manager at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Unilever shareholders were in ‘no mood’ to accept a short-term premium in exchange for losing the growth the company could produce for decades to come.

‘To win over a majority of Unilever’s shareholders, we think Kraft Heinz will need to dig very deep indeed,’ he added.

Kraft Heinz said it wanted to create a leading consumer goods company with a mission of long-term growth and sustainable living. Kraft Heinz shares were up 7 per cent at $93.98 in New York.